Hell on Earth

Blood was in the air come the next morning. Vampires were forced awake in the day as Humans who refused evacuation fled the streets of the Special Zone. War had begun, and the battles had started. “They’ve taken the hospital, and we’ve no medical supplies, Sir!” one of Eri’s men reported while frantically tending to a severely wounded Hunter who had no chance of survival. His stomach had been ripped out, and his insides were spilling over the concert hall’s floor. “Weapons out, we have company!” another announced in terror as a wave of Ravagers tore through the building. “This is insane!” Eri screamed, firing at the countless beasts.

“There’s too many, fall back!” one of the Company’s Suppression Commanders ordered. “Fall back to where, exactly? They have the entire quarter for eight blocks in every direction, at least. We’ve lost the main points of interest, hospital, police station, fire department… where do you expect us to retreat to, backstage?” Frederick questioned.

“Fred! Pull them onto the stage! Lesander’s running evacuations!” Kana ordered. “Evacuations to where? Which country will he be taking us to this time?” Kain growled, fighting in his wolf-like form. “It’s a secret, now be a good dog and get over here… I’ll give you a Scooby Snack,” Lesander taunted. “Leave him and get the Living far from here! They call them by name.” Death announced while using all of its power to obliterate the Ravager forces. “Work faster we have Nightmares!” Aimée screamed through her fight as one of the Suppression soldiers’ eyes went white and he began screaming and firing at his own men. “Perfect!” another roared.

“Silver Blade! We have Kowloon over here and are out of silver bullets!” another Hunter Commander pleaded while trying to avoid being bitten. By the time Jiro was able to respond to his call it was too late; he was already lost and was slain along with the vampire that bit him. Kana was torturing everything in her reach, making a point to have the Kowloon suffer more than they had ever suffered before. “Why don’t you fight the Demons like that?” one of Zelman’s Coven members demanded. “We can survive a bite from a Ravager, we cannot survive a bite from a Kowloon Child!” she answered, dropping her guns on the ground and drawing her sword, since she was out of ammo.

“Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Take me, come on damn you!” a female Hunter screamed after being cornered without ammunition. The sound of her death was enough to make even Kain cringe as her blood sprayed the walls. “There are far too many, we can’t possibly fight them all!” he shouted. “RUN!” Zelman added, changing his tactic from burning them to their second deaths, to creating a barrier. “Good idea, keep that going. Everyone else get as close to me as you can!” Lesander announced, using one hand to add shadows to Zelman’s fire, and the other to wrap what was left of the shadows around the evacuees.

After three evacuations Zelman, Kana, Jiro, and Frederick were the only ones left fighting the countless beasts. “If this is the end, it was an honor fighting beside you three.” Frederick announced. “Truly, my friend.” Jiro nodded. “Zelman, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, for convincing me to stay and fight for this city, and being the first to hear my story.” Kana laughed, trying to hide her fear and tears. “The pleasure was mine, Kana.” He frowned as the Ravagers and Reapers closed in on them as they summoned their greatest power, to give their final fight, but they never got the chance before darkness surrounded them, and their bodies went numb.

“What is taking so long? Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Mimiko demanded while impatiently pacing their new HQ. “Five against thousands leaves unlikely odds.” Death dismissed. “You don’t care if they live or die?” Rinsuke asked in astonishment. Death made no comment as it disappeared from the room, and reappeared standing guard on the roof.

“That’s it. I’m going after them.” Eri announced. “You can’t.” Aimée muttered.

“Why the hell not?”

“They aren’t in this world anymore.”

“What is that supposed to mean? They can’t be dead!”

“They already were,” she smiled, “But no, they aren’t dead in that sense.”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“Lesander has them in the Shadows. They are between worlds, in the world of the Shadows.” She explained while healing Kotaro, who had a deadly gash across his back from a Reaper’s scythe.

“What happened, Lesander? Why are we here and not with the others?” Frederick demanded. “I don’t have the strength to take us there.” He admitted, kneeling on the black ground and panting, “I could only take you away from the attackers… we still have to be aware of the Shadows here, we are still on the battlefield. However, only Shadows can find us here, and I control most of this place.”

“Lesander, we have to get back to them.” Kana frowned. “I know! I just can’t, Kana. I can’t… the last evacuation took a Reaper with us, it killed three and nearly killed the little blonde vampire. I don’t know his condition, Aimée was working on him when I came to get you.” He explained, directing his last sentence to Jiro, who was horrified.

“When will you recover?” Frederick asked sympathetically.

“I don’t know; I’ve never used so much power in all my years as a Demon.”

As Lesander tried to recover his strength, Kana was losing hers. She wasn’t even in the same world as Mei anymore, and had no way of knowing if she was all right. All she knew was darkness, for that was all that was around them. Black floor, black walls, black ceiling, but there was no room. There was only endless darkness in all directions.

Lesander meditated far off on his own, while Frederick and Jiro stood guards on opposite sides of the area, keeping their swords drawn. Kana sat far off from them as well, fighting her own fight as Zelman finally lost his, kneeling down beside her and accepting the fact he had fallen for the Demon.

“Go away.” She ordered when he tried to touch her.

“Kana, you can’t fight this on your own.” He sighed, kneeling behind her as she knelt with her hands behind her head. She tried to flinch away when he put his hands on her shoulders, but couldn’t find a direction to avoid him. “I can’t feel her, when we came here I could still feel her slightly. It’s like our connection was severed suddenly… I can’t feel her!” she explained through gritted teeth.

“I’m sure she’s all right, Kana.”

“Dear god above!” Frederick gasped suddenly, running over to them and swinging his sword, destroying the Shadow that appeared behind Zelman before it could attack them. He didn’t realize what was in its hand until it rolled and hit Kana’s arm.

Everything stopped.

“Why are the Shadows doing that?” Kotaro asked Aimée as they watched them act in a mix of cowering and rage. The Ghouls were furious, as was any other demonic creature from Kana, Frederick, Aimée, or Lesander’s Pits. “Master Kana is furious.” Kouki explained, frantically looking around for something.

“Son of a bitch! Where’s Mei?!” Eri demanded. “She is… taken.” Death answered. “Taken, where?” Kain demanded. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had grown attached to the little warrior after fighting beside her for most of the battle. “Kain,” Rinsuke breathed, focusing on the small, headless body hanging outside the window. “Damn it!” he growled, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Lesander appeared minutes later with Jiro, who ran to his brother’s side as soon as he could, and Frederick who in his fury beheaded the first of his Ghouls that reached his line of sight before pacing to vent his emotions silently. Aimée began weeping when Lesander left and returned with Kana, who was on all fours screaming, and Zelman, who was holding her still and doing everything he could to calm her.

“She’s lost her Reminder, will she still be on our side?” the Company President asked cautiously. “At the moment, it is impossible to say.” Lesander answered.

“Brother, what’s happening to her?” Kotaro asked, still unaware that Mei was dead. “She’s dying.” Aimée answered sadly. “What? Why?!” he demanded as tears came to his large, blue eyes “Where’s Mei? She can help her, right Brother? She helped her before, didn’t she?”

Jiro sighed heavily before looking his brother in the eyes. “Kotaro, I need you to listen to me very carefully. In war a lot of good people are lost to us, and Mei wasn’t the strongest of fighters due to her age. She was a small girl, Kotaro, she did well to survive this long.”

Kotaro was already crying quite hard at the news that his friend was gone, and unable to listen to his brother until Jiro forced him to. “Kana is doing enough crying for all of us, Kotaro. I need you to be strong for her, all right? Can you do that for her?”

“Y-yes, Brother.”

“Good, now get some rest; the sun will be rising soon.”

As Jiro took Kotaro away from the scene of the Demon battling her inner demons, Aimée was holding onto Zelman’s shoulders trying to combat the torture spell that had been placed on him as he held Kana. “You’re stronger than this, Kana, don’t let them take you too.” Zelman grunted, now leaning against the wall, pulling Kana against his chest. “Why?! Why should I fight for this world any longer? What do I have left?!” she screamed.

“Hold your fire,” Eri ordered the several gunmen who were ready to shoot.

“Kotaro, Mei’s close friend. You have Aimée, and Jiro, and Frederick… Mei’s memory! Don’t forget her, Kana. Fight for her memory, she’s still with you!”

Kana broke free of his grasp, but didn’t go anywhere. Instead she continued to scream as the ground shook. Suddenly a hole broke, leading deep into the pits of Hell, and a rush of energy no one in the room had seen before came up and into her. As suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, and Kana was left unconscious on the floor.

“What, the hell, was that?” a Suppression Soldier demanded. “That, is what happens when a Demon loses themselves to their pain… but she may still be the same Kana. We won’t know until she wakes up. If she tries to kill anyone, she’s one of them.” Lesander answered sadly. “What pain? She always seems so happy. Well, you know, except for the obliterating demons, and screaming curse words in my face, but that’s beside the point.” Eri responded. “Demons, our kind, are cursed to feel the pain of whatever caused us to damn ourselves to this fate, for eternity.” Frederick explained, “For years she has been battling the sorrow and guilt of what gave her this second life. Mei has been the reminder of what was still good in her. Her Second Life was dedicated to protecting and caring for her baby sister, making sure she would grow up happy. Now she’s not only grieving her sister, she’s feeling that guilt and sorrow tenfold. She’s dying all over again, only this time it’s her soul, and not her body.” Frederick muttered painfully as Zelman moved Kana to a better position, though the moment he moved her, she latched onto him and refused to let go in her unconscious state.

To everyone’s surprise, he sat against the wall and held her gently, making sure she was all right for the rest of the night until she woke again.